


Reading Lists

by toli-a (togina)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-22 09:03:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7428523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/togina/pseuds/toli-a
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam wonders why he ever bothered to steal the kindle, if no one is going to use it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reading Lists

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from tumblr, written well before CACW, and betaed by the magnificent cabloom.

After Bucky was safe—and wasn’t that a hell of a ride, Sam still wasn’t sure where they were or when they’d catch sunlight next, somewhere in the catacombs of Europe—Steve started sharing his lists, the books they downloaded onto some poor woman’s kindle.  (They’d given her Sam’s, though she didn’t know that.  Sam really hoped she hadn’t ended up as property of the U.S. government, like everything else he’d touched.)

But Bucky wouldn’t read any of the books SHIELD psychiatrists had forced on Steve Rogers, to bring him “up to date.”  (Steve had raised his eyebrows at Sam one evening, lip curled in amusement or disdain.  “Dames with short hair and trousers, men in evening gowns.  Guys like Jones running scared, guys like Jackie still on the waiting list to get in.  Too much misinformation and a whole lotta fear,” he summarized.  “World hasn’t changed at all.”)

Steve shrugged, and offered up books on the Roaring Twenties, to help with the memories Bucky couldn’t recall.  Bucky pursed his lips and scrolled down to histories of the Roman Empire, Steve’s classics on war.

When Sam asked, Steve had raised one eyebrow, grimacing in the same fractured smile he always used around the current James Barnes.  “He doesn’t want to read about the world Pierce made,” Steve explained, keeping his voice low and his eyes trained on his best friend, curled up but not sleeping a few feet away.  Sam could understand that.  He couldn’t watch the news, anymore, wondering what havoc they had all wrought over the fate of one man.  There was no point in learning the repercussions of the damage the Winter Soldier had done.

“But wouldn’t he want to know about the ‘30s?” Sam asked.  “Put some facts to all that nonsense you keep spinning about two jackasses in Brooklyn.”  Bucky opened one eye, staring at Sam like a suspicious dragon guarding its hoard, and Sam winked.

“I know all about the thirties,” Bucky grunted.   “Dames in trousers.  Snot-nosed punks you couldn’t pay to throw a fight.”  Steve threw back his head and laughed, the sound echoing down the damp stone walls.  Barnes gave up pretending to sleep and rolled gracefully to his feet, letting Steve sling one arm around him and pull him close.  (Sam still wasn’t convinced that Bucky didn’t have some unnamed superpower that let him sense Steve, since anyone else came that close to Barnes and they’d be in a coma.)

“There’s a lot of world out there,” Sam said quietly, gesturing above their heads where normal people slept, safe from the government and Stark’s surveillance.  “A lot of good things you might be happy to know.”

Bucky tilted his head and gazed at Sam for a moment, then turned the same unblinking stare at Steve, a smile curling the right corner of his mouth.  “Some asshole says there’s a lot of good in here,” he murmured, tapping his chest with the metal of his left hand and smirking gently at Steve.  “I’ve got enough to learn, for now.”  Then he leaned in toward Steve, caught Sam’s eye, and winked.


End file.
